Searching For Text Message Recipients Issue

The message(s) from that particular contact *should* be located *if* it or they have not been deleted. Have you tried searching via the spotlight search? From the default homescreen, swipe the screen to the right. You will see a search field. Enter that person's name.

Searching For Text Message Recipients Issue

Yeah, doesn't show up in the spotlight search or the search from the text message app itself. It's strange because it is just one friend. Even where another friend mentioned his name, that text thread shows up. Just not the thread where he has text me. It's odd.

Searching For Text Message Recipients Issue

That is strange. Have you confirmed that the message is indeed still on your device? Is it an iMessage or a regular SMS message? If its an iMessage and if you have another device such as an iPad, iPod Touch or a Mac that is capable of sending and receiving iMessages, initiate the iMessage app and see if the message will display and be found via a search on that device.

Searching For Text Message Recipients Issue

Yeah, it is still on the device. I made sure not to delete it so I could test it out. It is definitely still there. It is a regular text message, not iMessage. It's just really weird because he is the only one that I've noticed this with.

Searching For Text Message Recipients Issue

Also if that fails go to your contacts and verify EXACTLY how you have that person listed. Then perform a search for the first name of that person from the text message screen.

If that fails, ask your friend to send you a test text message and then try the search again.

I wonder if for some reason that message wasn't indexed.

I've done all of that. This has been going on for a month or so. It's just really strange that it's only one person. It isn't the biggest deal in the world, just enough to make me want to figure out how to fix it.

Re: Searching For Text Message Recipients Issue

I've been having the same issue, however what I'm finding is that the sms search box is only searching through the text found in my messages and not the contact names, it's been happening for a few weeks now. This is so strange and it's driving me crazy as I text with hundreds of people for work.

Re: Searching For Text Message Recipients Issue

Re: Searching For Text Message Recipients Issue

Hi there,

Anyone get this issue figured out? A couple things that may help troubleshoot...

- I found that it happened sometime 6.1
- In the Messages app, I search for a message by the first name, and nothing shows up... even though I can see the message in the list. If that name is mentioned in the body of other messages, then those messages show up.
- There is no issue in Spotlight... the messages, while searching by the first name, show up just fine.
- Can't figure out why this happens in some cases and not in others. Haven't been able to narrow this down, but I think that it's having trouble searching for iMessage recipients. Almost like the index for all recipients that have iMessage in my phone is broken.

Re: Searching For Text Message Recipients Issue

I've been having the same problem as above. I feel it has something to do with unified contacts but I can be for sure. But it is very annoying now that I can't search for a text message string from a friend and now have to scroll through and find that person in the messages list to reread a text message chain.

Re: Searching For Text Message Recipients Issue

I've been having the same issue for several weeks. On my iPhone 4s when I do a search from within messages for a name or for text it always pulls up one set of texts, but it isn't the one I'm looking for. For example, I'll type in "John" and it will bring back messages from Jessie. I suppose we may have mentioned John somewhere in the history of our texting, but the better reply would have been my texts WITH John.

If I scroll manually through my history, I can find my texts from John, but the search feature can no longer locate him.

I spent some time going through my history deleting a lot of texts, and restarted my phone, but the problem is persisting.